The Guy Greg McLean’s Jungle Is Based On Tells His Story

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Several weeks ago, it was confirmed that Wolf Creek director Greg McLean would helm a survival thriller called Jungle, and that it will star Kevin Bacon. The news seems to have flown a bit under the radar since, until The Hollywood Reporter put out an article about it this week, which McLean tweeted out to his fans. The two previously worked together on the McLean-produced 6 Miranda Drive, which is due out next year.

Jungle tells the nonfictional story of Yossi Ghinsberg, who wrote a book about his terrifying experience in the rain forest, called “Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival,” which is what the film is based on. The description of Jungle is as follows:

JUNGLE tells the story of Yossi Ghinsberg, an enthusiastic young adventurer following his dreams, who heads into the Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey turns into a terrifying psychological ordeal and fight for survival as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness emerge to test their endurance. Bacon will play Karl, the guide that leads Ghinsberg and companions into the heart of the jungle.

Ghinsberg gave a TEDx Talk in Bratislava in 2010, and shared memories from his adventure. If you’re looking forward to the McLean film, you may want to give this a watch:

After completing his service in Israeli navy, inspired by Papillon, Ghinsberg decided to travel. He worked several jobs to save money to make it to South America. When he was in LaPaz, he met Karl Rurechter, an Austrian who claimed to be a geologist. Karl told Ghinsberg that he was planning an expedition into the uncharted Amazon of Bolivia in search for gold in a very remote Indian village. Ghinsberg and two of his friends – Kevin, an American photographer and Marcus Stamm, a Swiss Ghinsberg met in South America – decided to join Karl.

Ghinsberg and the three men flew by plane and then walked for four days to arrive at the unchartered area. There, they had to eat monkeys due to being low on supplies. However, Marcus refused to eat monkeys and grew weaker. After traveling through the rainforest for a month, they decided to built a raft to evacuate on river. However, Karl could not swim and did not want to use a raft. By that time they had realized that Karl was lying about the gold and the Indian village. The group had disagreements, which led to them breaking up. Kevin and Ghinsberg decided to take the raft down the river and Karl and Marcus decided to walk upriver. Karl and Marcus were never heard from again. Ghinsberg and Kevin lost control of the raft as it neared a waterfall. Kevin made it to shore but Ghinsberg floated downstream and over the waterfall. He spent four days travelling upriver in order to find Kevin. But then he started walking downriver believing it to be the adventure he wanted. Ghinsberg spent the next three weeks without supplies and equipment in an unchartered part of Amazon. On the fourteenth day, there was a flood in the area and for the subsequent five days, he did not have anything to eat. He would find berries, snails and raw eggs to eat. According to him, he hallucinated a woman with whom he slept each night while he was lost and did everything for her.

Kevin was found by a tribe and he along with two indigenous people found Ghinsberg after three days of search rescue mission, three weeks after Ghinsberg was lost. Following his rescue, Ghinsberg spent the next three months in a hospital.

Greg McLean’s Jungle is being produced by Arclight Films. It was originally being developed by See-Saw Films and the Spierig brothers but they reportedly didn’t go any further than the early development stage. Before that it was actually going to be an episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive.

The script was written by Justin Monjo. Gary Hamilton, Dana Lustig, Mike Gabrawy and Mark Lazarus are producing.

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